“I don’t think I am a learner”: acts of naming learners at work | Emerald Insight

The terms “learning” and “learner” are used in discussions of workplace learning as if they were unproblematic and as if workers, organisations and researchers had a common, shared view about what these terms mean. A study of four different workgroups within an organisation in which the discourse of learning was pervasive suggests that having an identity as a learner may not be compatible with being regarded as a competent worker. The politics of naming oneself as a learner are considered and the power of naming learning and learners are discussed. The broader implications for research on workplace learning of such a discursive approach are noted.